Collection: Champagne Charpentier
France - Champagne
Champagne Charpentier
The Charpentiers have grown grapes in Champagne for eight generations. For most of that time the harvest went to the local cooperative, but from 2006 the family began vinifying and selling wine from its own vines.
The father of Jean-Marc Charpentier, who runs the domaine today, was an agricultural engineer and headmaster of a school of viticulture and oenology, where he trained a great many growers.
Jean-Marc studied at his father's school and, from 1988, learned the craft of growing at the side of his grandparents, who worked the vines themselves.
The first thing he did on striking out on his own was to vinify parcel by parcel.
Doing so allowed the individual character of each different terroir to come through with real precision.
To push his own philosophy of Champagne further still, he converted twenty-four hectares to organic farming and, from 2009, began working biodynamically as well.
The domaine is based in the village of Charly-sur-Marne in the Vallée de la Marne, and from there farms seventy-two separate parcels.
Where growers in this part of Champagne typically plant more than 90% Pinot Meunier, at Charpentier Chardonnay accounts for 45%, with Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir making up the rest.
That unusual balance tells in the glass, giving rise to Champagnes of real individuality: cuvées drawn from single small parcels, and special parcel-selection bottlings aged on their lees for as long as seven years.
The Charpentier family has been cultivating Champagne for eight generations and has long supplied its grapes to the cooperative, but in 2006 they began vinifying and selling grapes from their own vineyards.
The father of Jean-Marc Charpentier, who currently manages the domaine, was an agricultural engineer and head of a winemaking and viticulture school, where he trained many wine growers.
Jean-Marc himself studied at his father's school, and after graduating in 1988 he learned the know-how of grape cultivation under his grandparents, who work as wine growers.
The first thing he did after going independent was to vinify grapes in individual plots, which allowed him to accurately express the unique characteristics of each terroir.
In order to promote the production of champagne based on his own philosophy, he then converted 24 hectares of vineyards to organic farming, and began practicing biodynamic farming in 2009.
The domaine is located in the village of Charly-sur-Marne in the Vallée de la Marne region and owns 72 plots around the area.
While other producers in the region plant over 90% Pinot Meunier, Charpentier's vines are 45% Chardonnay, with the rest being Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir.
This unique characteristic has a significant influence on the taste, resulting in distinctive champagnes, such as cuvées made from small plots of land and special cuvées from individual plots that are aged on the lees for up to seven years.
